U.S. Pat. No. 3,392,599, issued Jul. 16, 1968 and assigned to the assignee of this invention, describes an energy absorbing steering column for a motor vehicle including a tubular lower mast jacket, a tubular upper mast jacket telescopically overlapping the lower mast jacket, and an energy absorber between the upper and the lower mast jackets. The energy absorber includes a plastic ball sleeve and a plurality of steel spheres loosely received in apertures in the ball sleeve and interference fitted between the upper and the lower mast jackets. An impact on the steering column induces linear telescopic collapse of the upper mast jacket over the lower mast jacket. The steel spheres plastically deform the upper and the lower mast jackets by rolling tracks in each thereby to convert into work a fraction of the kinetic energy of the impact on the steering column. An energy absorber according to this invention is a novel alternative to the energy absorber described in the aforesaid U.S. Pat. No. 3,392,599.